Review: Vax Life unplugged vacuum cleaner

Vax was the best-selling brand in the early nineties (until Dyson came along). And the early nineties was also a time for MTV unplugged. Well Vax seems to be taken up that particular idea with a vacuum cleaner that ditches the plug.

The Vax Life is a cordless, battery powered vacuum cleaner that will make a great addition to your normal vacuum cleaner, however it won’t replace it. The device is incredibly light for a vac, weighing in a 3.4kg. And assembly is quick and easy, the handle pops on the top and when the battery is charged up (the device comes with a battery charging station) you are good to go.

Design-wise it is a league away from the Dyson and its garish primary colours. The Life goes for the understated look in grey and black. Lightness and sleekness aside, the Life feels like something that can take the knocks. The design means that for a lot of people you may be able to store it away with another vacuum cleaner as it has a very small footprint. As it is also light, you may find that you can easily lift it up and down the stairs.

As far as features go, you have an on/off switch that can toggle between hard floor and soft carpet and that’s about it. There are no other attachments, so you won’t be using this to clean out cobwebs on the ceiling, it’s just not that kind of cleaner. Stairs also don’t clean well with this vac.

But, for such a small cleaner, the thing really sucks (in a good way – this is a vacuum cleaner!) If you have a nice small space htat you need to keep tidy and don’t want to lug your main vacuum out, the Life comes into its own. It is light enough to use day-to-day without any fuss.

The collection chamber is quite small, so it will probably require a little more in the way of emptying and as it is batter powered, the vacuum will only last a little while until it runs out of charge until it needs recharging. Luckily it maintains a good enough rate of suction until it properly runs out of juice.

Overall, this is great as a companion to a larger vacuum or as an everyday device to keep your main living spaces clean. If you have a manual carpet sweeper, this will be a good replacement. However at around £200, it is not a cheap option.